Trigger
by bashipforever
Summary: Lilah figures out Angelus' trigger from an previous Sunnydale resident.


Title: Trigger

Summary: S5 Btvs Post "Into the Woods" pre "The Gift" Riley has a visitor in the jungles of South America.

A/N Written for Rachel's out of the hat ficathon.

"Yo, Finn, pretty woman here to see you."

Riley Finn's head snapped around at that declaration. He didn't know many pretty women and there was only one he could think of that would come to the Jungles of South America to see him; even then, there'd have to be an apocalypse, literally, for that to happen. He wasn't ready for another one of those. She'd taken him through one full blown and stopped half a dozen others before they could be a blip on anyone's radar. He'd had his full of apocalypses and Buffy Summers for this lifetime.

He'd love to see her.

Riley pushed aside the tent flap and was disappointed to see a brunette he'd never met before. She turned and smiled at him. "Riley Finn?"

"Yes, Ma'am." He stepped inside the tent.

She held her hand out for him to shake. "I'm Lilah Morgan from Wolfram and Hart Law Firm in Los Angeles."

Riley shook her hand, his brow furrowing. He wasn't sure what a law firm wanted with him, or even why a law firm had traveled this far to speak with him.

"Why don't you have seat?" Ms. Morgan offered, gesturing toward the quasi comfortable chairs in the tent.

Riley nodded, waited for her to sit down and then followed suite. "I'm sorry Ma'am I can't figure what it is you'd want to speak with me about."

Lilah smiled. "It's minor really, a very small part of important case my law firm is working on."

Riley nodded. "Did Commander Cleveland okay my speaking with you?"

"I've cleared everything with him; you haven't a need to worry."

Riley nodded, his eyes roaming over the woman next to him. She wore a business suit with a skirt that was a bit too short and heels a bit too high, particularly for the rainforest. She unbuttoned the jacket of her suit and slid it off her shoulders to reveal a sleeveless ivory shell. Her long, dark brown hair hung past her shoulders and her makeup was impeccably applied. She could go straight from this tent to an executive board room.

"It was quite a chore getting here. You're pretty isolated," Lilah said.

"Yes Ma'am, we're doing some confidential work out here."

Lilah smiled. "You can call me Lilah, and relax Riley, I'm not here to ask you about any of that or get you in any sort of trouble with your superiors." She opened a briefcase, pulled out a pocket tape recorder, a legal pad and a pen. "Do you mind?" She asked holding the tape recorder up. Riley shook his head.

Lilah arranged the items on the desk behind them. "Alright then, I'll get right to it. I understand you spent some recently in a town called Sunnydale in California."

"Yes Ma'-Lilah."

Lilah nodded, pleased with his cooperation in calling her by her name. "Could you tell me a little bit about that? I've got full clearance." She showed him a manila folder that indeed gave her clearance to information about the Initiative.

Riley glanced at it and then her. It was government clearance, almost impossible for a civilian to receive. "How did you get this?"

"Wolfram and Hart has some very important clients," Lilah explained.

Riley tossed the folder on the desk and folded his arms over his chest. "Alright then, ask your questions." His jaw was tight. He didn't like discussing the operation that had gone so wrong in Sunnydale.

"I'd like to know about Buffy Summers."

He was taken aback; it wasn't the question he'd expected this woman to ask. "Buffy wasn't part of the Initiative."

"On the contrary, Maggie Walsh's records confirm that Ms. Summers was indeed a part of this company for approximately one week. That's not what I'm interested in. I'm interested in Ms. Summers herself. She's a slayer, isn't she?" Lilah said.

Riley shook his head. "I can't tell you anything about Buffy."

Lilah took a deep breath and smiled sweetly. "Our law firm is investigating a case involving a vampire named Angel." Lilah knew she'd hit a nerve when Riley sat straighter, stiffer in his chair at the mention of Angel.

"You know Angel?" Lilah asked.

"We've met," Riley said coldly.

"Yeah? What do you know about him?"

Riley shook his head. "Not much. He's a jerk. Buffy said he has a soul, but he's still a jerk."

Lilah leaned forward. "We're afraid he's much more then that, Agent Finn. We're afraid Angel is a murderer."

He shook his head. "Like I said, I don't know much. He-" Riley stopped.

"Yes," Lilah encouraged him.

"I don't know if it's true or not, but apparently his soul had this loophole, a way to get rid of it. If he's killing people again…you really should call Buffy. That's sort of her expertise."

Lilah shook her head. "No, tell me about this loophole. What do you know about it?"

Riley stopped and started. "He-apparently it's a perfect happiness thing. Angel has one moment of perfect happiness and he loses his soul."

A wide smile broke across Lilah's face. "Really? Just a single moment of perfect happiness?"

Riley shrugged. "Yeah, but it's a little more complicated then that. Have you seen this guy? He's the poster child for dark and broody. I get the impression that not much makes him happy."

"But something did, once. We have on record that Angelus, Angel's evil alter ego, was reported in Sunnydale as recently as 1998."

Riley chuckled bitterly and shook his head. "She said they'd been recent, but I didn't realize how recent." Buffy's relationship with the vampire still sat sourly in his stomach.

"What do you mean?" Lilah prodded.

"Apparently perfect happiness for Angel is Buffy."

Lilah called Holland Manners from her hotel. "Holland, I'm on my way home. I think we've got everything we need to get to Angelus."

"I knew my faith in you hadn't been misplaced. What do we need?"

"Not much, only the slayer, the blonde one, not the one that's in prison."

"A slayer?"

"Yup, the trigger to Angelus is a slayer," Lilah confirmed.

"And she's not going to slay him, correct? You know we need him for the apocalypse."

"No, she's going to give him a moment of perfect happiness."


End file.
